


First

by ThanksForListening



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 03, mention of nightmares, platonic only! - Freeform, we don't ignore canon sexualities in this house no sir, we stan a healthy friendship though!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 01:02:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20001400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThanksForListening/pseuds/ThanksForListening
Summary: "Steve woke up with a groan.Opening his eyes hurt. Sitting up hurt. He tried to think back to last night, but that hurt too. All he knew was that one minute he sat in the back of an ambulance, getting looked at by some EMTs, and the next he was waking up in his bed, Advil and water on the nightstand next to him.'Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,' a voice echoed throughout his room, and he looked up to see Robin standing in his doorway."or, Steve and Robin try to move on the morning after hell broke loose.





	First

Steve woke up with a groan.

Opening his eyes hurt. Sitting up hurt. He tried to think back to last night, but that hurt too. All he knew was that one minute he sat in the back of an ambulance, getting looked at by some EMTs, and the next he was waking up in his bed, Advil and water on the nightstand next to him. 

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” a voice echoed throughout his room, and he looked up to see Robin standing in his doorway. She’d changed out of her Scoops uniform, instead wearing one of his t-shirts and a pair of basketball shorts, both of which were huge on her. He looked down, and realized that he had somehow changed as well. 

“Where’s my uniform?” He asked, his voice raspy and his throat sore. He reached for the water, taking the pills before the rest of his body could remember what it went through during the past few days. 

“Really? That’s your biggest concern right now?”

“It’s not my _biggest concern._ I just don’t remember changing. Or how I got here. Or how you got here.”

“You don’t remember anything about last night?”

“Well, I remember the giant monster from another dimension. I remember hitting Billy with my car. I remember that Suzie is real, and that her and Dustin serenaded everyone at the worst possible moment. But after the army came, everything else is blank.”

“I changed your clothes,” Robin said, walking into his room and sitting on the end of his bed. He sat up further, turning his legs so she’d have room, even though his bed was big enough for the both of them. “And I brought you home.”

“You drove my car?”

“Surprisingly, me driving your car was probably the least dangerous thing to happen to us last night.”

“I don’t know, I’ve seen you hit parked cars on your bike; I’d say you were definitely up there when it comes to posing a danger to both us and my car,” he said with a smile, and she gave him one back, even if it didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“The doctors said you’ve probably got a concussion,” she told him. “You’re not supposed to drive for a few days. Or drink. Just in case.”

“And to think, I had planned to drink and drive this whole weekend. Thanks a lot, Russian spies.”

“This isn’t funny, Steve.” He was taken aback by her tone, by the way her voice seemed to shake. The smile on her face had disappeared completely, and she’d brought her legs up to her chest. 

“I know it isn’t,” he said. 

“Do you realize how many times we almost died during the past few days?”

“Yeah, Robin, I—“

“Other people are actually dead, Steve. Like, never-coming-back dead. That could have been us. And now the mall is gone, and they’re calling it a freak accident and pretending like nothing happened even though there was an actual _monster_ and Russian spies and—“

“Hey,” He said, stifling a groan as he moved toward the end of the bed, sitting beside her. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

“You’re not,” she said, and he could hear the unshed tears in her voice. He put his arm around her, and let her lean into his side. 

“I’m right here, Rob. I’m fine. We’re both fine.”

“You kept screaming in your sleep,” she said softly. “And you cried a lot. And I know, because I didn’t sleep at all last night, because every time I close my eyes I see that—that _thing_ , and I—“

He threw his arms around her. Steve didn’t say a word as she cried into his shoulder, holding onto him as if he might float away if she didn’t. He remembered the feeling, the first time he realized that monsters didn’t just exist in books and movies. The first time he had to fight for his life. He remembered how big his house felt after, how every shadow sent his heart racing, every sound set him on edge. He remembered how alone he felt, having to act like everything was still fine, having to act like _he_ was still fine, the world around him none-the-wiser toward what kind of danger lurked beneath their feet.

“I’m sorry,” he told her, as her crying got quieter and her breath became more even. “I’m sorry you got dragged into all of this.”

“It’s not your fault,” she mumbled into his shoulder. 

“Of course it’s my fault. If I hadn’t brought you into the whole Russian thing, then you never would have been kidnapped, or drugged, or chased by a...by whatever that thing was.”

“ _I’m_ the one who got _myself_ involved in the Russian thing,” she said, turning her head up to look at him. “You couldn’t have stopped me, even if you tried.”

Steve didn’t say anything. Logically, part of him knew she was right, but the other part could still picture her face as they sat in the back of the car, praying they could outdrive whatever the hell it was that followed them. He couldn’t help but feel that if he had been more careful, more assertive, then she wouldn’t have gotten caught up in the insanity that was his life. 

“Hey,” she said, her voice bringing him back into the moment, “is this supernatural stuff why you’re friends with so many kids?”

“Yeah, sorta,” He said, and he told her everything: about the past two years, about Eleven and what she could do, about trying to fight off monsters with his baseball bat. It felt good, he realized, to talk to someone about it. To talk to her about it. 

“Okay,” She said, processing the information much better than he would have had he not experienced it himself, “so what do we do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, okay, we fought it, but now what? What do we do if it comes back? How do we prepare for something like that again?”

“Umm…”

“You have no plan, do you?”

“To be fair, I’m pretty sure we got rid of it for good this time.”

“Didn’t you think that the last two times though?”

Steve opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. 

“And,” she continued, “if there was another gate in Russia, there could be more all around the world. Which means there could also be labs all around the world, filled with people trying to turn other kids into someone like El.”

“If you’re trying to make sure I never sleep again, you’re doing an excellent job.”

She bit her lip. “Sorry. It’s just — I don’t like sitting around, waiting for things to happen. Not if there’s something we could do about it.”

“But is there though? Something we could do?” He turned toward her. “I mean, even if you’re right, how would we even find these other gates? And if by some miracle we did find them, what are two teenagers who scoop ice cream for a living going to do against something like that?”

“We survived the Russians.”

“We got kidnapped, drugged, and beaten up by the Russians. And we only survived because of Dustin and Erica.”

“Damn, when did you become the responsible one in this relationship?” She asked, and he laughed. 

“I’ve always been the responsible one, thank you very much.”

“Oh, please. Just because you have a bunch of kids that follow you like ducklings, that doesn’t make you responsible.”

This time, he felt his smile fade away. “Yeah,” He said, and he tried to keep his voice light but even he could hear the mangled way the words came out. “Yeah, I know.”

“Hey,” she said, turning her body so she was facing him. “That’s not what I meant. You are responsible, especially when it comes to them.”

He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous tick he’d never quite outgrown. “I’m really not, though?” He said, and he didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but the more he talked the less control he had over what came out of his mouth. “I just went along with Dustin trying to investigate Russians. And even when we saw they had guns and were real and _dangerous,_ I didn’t stop. I just brought in Erica, a kid even younger. And then I led us all to a giant battle with a giant demon spider, and the Russians probably still have Dustin’s name somewhere because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, and—“

“Steve,” She said, hands on his shoulders. He stopped, staring at her with a look of desperation that he knew was pathetic, even if he couldn’t see it. “You need to breathe, okay?”

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. 

“Listen,” She said, voice softer, calmer. “Do you really think Dustin would have just dropped it if you’d told him investigating the Russians was too dangerous?” He shook his head. “So would you rather he do all of that alone, or have you there protecting him?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to — they both knew that he’d follow those kids to hell and back. He practically already had.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this,” she said, “but do you realize that there’s a reason all those kids like spending time with you? It’s not just that you’re fun, or that you’re cool, or whatever — you have this way of making people feel safe when they’re around you.”

“Yeah, I think it’s the bat with nails and the fake confidence.” 

“Shut up, Steve, I’m serious.” She said, but he could see her fighting a smile. “You’re a complete dingus, yet you somehow have this ability to make everything feel less bad, like nothing awful could really happen as long as you’re around. I mean, honestly, why do you think I stayed here last night?”

“Again, I think that’s just the _bat with nails._ ”

“It’s not your goddamn bat, Steve, it’s you.” She took a breath, closed her eyes for just a second, before staring at him with sincerity, a look he’d seen a few times over the past couple days. “When I told you about...about me, in the bathroom? You were the first person I ever said that to, Steve. Ever.” 

“Oh,” he whispered.

“Yeah.” She started absentmindedly playing with the bracelets on her wrist. “And it wasn’t because of some dumb bat, or even because of the truth serum. Well, okay, it was partly because of the truth serum, but it was also because I felt like I could trust you. Like I could tell you, and you wouldn’t hurt me because of it. And that had nothing to do with confidence, or your ability to fight monsters — that was just because of you, Steve.”

“Wow,” he said, and he knew his response, whatever he said right now, mattered. He could have a profound moment — one where he tells her about how much he’s come to value her friendship, how he doesn’t care who she loves so long as they’re good to her, how he would protect her from anything, the same way he’d protect Dustin or Erica or any of the others. He searched for the right words, the smart ones that would make everything better.

He couldn’t find them. “So what you’re saying,” he said instead, “is that I’m your first?”

She laughed and hit him with a pillow, and he thought maybe he’d picked the right words after all. 

“Seriously, though,” he said after a minute, “thanks Robin. I’m not really used to talking about this stuff. It’s nice — I’m just not that good at it yet.”

“You haven’t talked about all this weird shit?” She asked. “Not even with Nancy or Jonathan?”

Steve shrugged. “It’s complicated. I mean, I think it was just easier for us to try and move on, pretend like it never happened. Try and be normal again.” He laughed, but it didn’t sound right. “Never really worked out that well, though, did it?”

“Well,” She drawled, smile back on her face, “then _I_ am honored to be _your_ first.”

“Oh, the honor is all mine,” he said with a grin. She beamed back at him, before jumping off the bed. 

“I’m starving,” she told him, “and I won’t hesitate to eat my way through both your fridge and pantry if you don’t get out of bed.”

“If you even look at the Lucky Charms, I swear to God!” he called out after her, and he could hear her laugh as she ran out of his room. He sat for a moment, staring at the doorway she’d just run through, as if he could see her through the walls. Here they were, laughing as if the world hadn’t just nearly ended twelve hours earlier, laughing despite the nightmares that haunted their dreams and the horrors that haunted their realities. He wondered, as he slowly dragged his bruised body out of bed, if maybe this was the secret: there was no going back to normal— there was just moving forward.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments give me more endorphins than exercise ever could so if anyone wants to throw some of those my way.......much appreciated. Also hit me up on tumblr if u wanna yell about Our Lord And Savior, Robin Buckley @thanks--for--listening.


End file.
